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Welcome to Breakthroughs

Hello! Welcome to Breakthroughs, a site devoted to sharing with you the latest, greatest advancements from the College of Science at Oregon State University. From breakthroughs in research to transformational philanthropy to interesting tidbits from the daily life of the College, we'll post frequently to keep you up-to-date. Please visit often and absolutely let us know what you might like to learn more about. Enjoy, and of course, GO BEAVS!

Sometime later this year, the director of the Linus Pauling Institute at Oregon State University will cross over a threshold he’s been working toward for nearly 15 years.

It’s a literal threshold: One day soon, Balz Frei will walk into the Linus Pauling Science Center, the new home for the institute, and “we will have for the first time everybody in the institute under a single roof.”

The oceans are still largely out of sight and out of mind for most of us, says Jane Lubchenco. The Oregon State University professor and head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration was interviewed this month by The New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolbert for YaleEnvironment360. See http://www.e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2169

We’ve added a page on Facebook for our friends who would like to connect with us there. Links on the Facebook page will lead back to the Breakthroughs blog, to other stories and videos on the web, or to pages on the OSU website.

Emily Pickering has a rule about swimming with lionfish: don’t get poked! The OSU first-year student is studying these fierce looking fish with OSU coral reef expert Mark Hixon in the Bahamas. Native to the South Pacific, lionfish are raising havoc in the Caribbean and along the Florida coast. Read Emily’s posts from Lee Stocking Island at her blog, A Chronicle of the Invasion.

For OSU coral reef scientist Mark Hixon, climate change is personal. He studied a tropical reef for a decade, and the results of his work stunned and inspired him. In a new book, Thoreau’s Legacy, published by the Union of Concerned Scientists and Penguin Books, Hixon describes the calamity that struck in 1998. His is one of 67 personal stories and reflections on global warming at http://www.ucsusa.org/americanstories/. A story about Hixon’s research appeared in the spring 2008 issue of Terra magazine.

In waters off the Bahama in 2006, Mark Hixon collected juvenile coral-reef fish for tagging. (Photo courtesy of Mark Hixon)

Finals this week! And after that, where else to go but Kenya? That’s where Shalynn Pack, a junior in zoology from Marcola, Oregon, will work this summer in pursuit of a career in tropical forest conservation and ecotourism. Check out her lab: Lake Nakuru National Park at www.kws.org/nakuru.html.

Welcome to the Breakthroughs in Science blog!

We’re happy to see you here. A quick orientation: on the left-hand side of the page you’ll find categories that may help you zero in on the topics you’re most interested in. We post frequently with the news of the day, so do bookmark and visit often! We’d like to hear your thoughts and feedback so we can develop the blog to help our alumni, friends, and donors connect with the College of Science.

“We have already eaten most of the big fish in the Caribbean according to a new study [by OSU alumnus Dr. Chris Stallings] that links the decline of sharks, groupers and other big fish to a rise in human population.”

Mark Hixon was Chris’ doctoral advisor here at OSU, and was quoted in the article regarding the Lionfish population:

“Lionfish are minor players on their native Pacific reefs, yet they are undergoing a population explosion and overeating small fishes in the greater Caribbean region. Preliminary evidence suggests that lionfish are less invasive where large predatory native fishes are abundant, such as in marine reserves.”